A top White House national security adviser on Sunday praised President Trump’s use of Twitter, saying the social media account has helped make the commander in chief the “most genuine president” in U.S. history.

During an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Thomas Bossert, White House national security and counterterrorism adviser, said Mr. Trump’s method of striking back against the news media via Twitter is his way of communicating directly with the American people.

Mr. Bossert’s comments come at a time of increasing criticism from both sides of the aisle over the president’s Twitter habits, particularly his singling out of specific news personalities.

“There’s a lot of cable news shows that reach directly into hundreds of thousands of viewers, and they’re really not always very fair to the president. So I’m proud of the president for developing a Twitter and a social media platform where he can talk directly to the American people,” Mr. Bossert said. “In fact, he’s the most genuine president and the most non-politician president that we’ve seen in my lifetime. And he’s demonstrated — whatever the content of that particular tweet is or any tweet — he’s demonstrated a genuine ability to communicate to the people.”

Influential Republicans have a very different view and are urging Mr. Trump to stay off of social media.

“You know it’s unfortunate, and people are now begging the president not to do this and, you know, he ought to stop doing it and we’ll have to see what happens. It’s one of the few things that I think brought Republicans and Democrats together,” Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, told ABC News on Sunday.